Code Geass on a Boat
by Chaos Nightbringer
Summary: Lelouch is trapped on a floating town with the Emperor, and just ran out of ice. This was going to be pure hell. Kallen is finally moving to Britannia where her entire family will be enslaved by her Britannian father. This was going to be pure hell.


_Disclaimer Code Geass is owned by Sunrise, this is a non-profit fanfiction. Maybe the boat is owned by someone from England, Southampton Liverpool, fuck IDK..._

 _Except it's not because this is FICTIONAL._

 **Code Geass on a Boat, Motherfucker**

"Daddy it's a ship"

 **Fuck Off**

" _To everyone else the Great Britannia was a ship of dreams. To me it was a slave ship."_

 _-Kallen vi Britannia-1927_

Lelouch was awoken by loud Japanese voices. The nobleman opened his eyes to see that his separate car had stopped finally, and he was being spoken to by some of the dockworkers. Lelouch began to extricate himself from the town-car as the workers began unloading massive trunks from the back of the car.

He was greeted by the scent of coal-smoke, the scent of saltwater, and his father's disappointed glare from the first car. Lelouch returned a smirk, simply enjoying his father's discomfort for the very sake of itself. His eyes didn't even gaze over the massive steam-driven cruise liner. Jeremiah was beside him without Lelouch even noticing it. The valet handed Lelouch his cane with a similarly disappointed expression.

Jeremiah was, at least in Lelouch's opinion, half-human, compared to his slavery-mongering father. Lelouch sighed and accepted the cane.

"A week with my father, trapped aboard a floating palace and everything I hate," Lelouch noted glumly, finally deigning the ship with his notice. Lelouch looked up into Jeremiah's face. "Any advice?"

"I hear the bar is well stocked," Jeremiah commented. "And hopefully you'll need only to appear with him in public the bare minimum."

"Which is any time other captains of industry are present," Lelouch pointed out, aggravated again. "Especially since the same captains have finished surveying the newly acquired Japan."

Further down the docks at the third-class passenger queue, Kallen Kozuki frowned as her mother and brother waited with her in line. She leaned over and stood straighter to see the front of the line. Her eyes widened when she saw several people being examined with combs and the luggage opened and tossed through.

"They're treating us Japanese like animals," Kallen noted angrily, relaxing back to her original standing position. Her brother Naoto stiffened behind her, angry.

"English, Kallen," her mother reminded nervously. "Once we're in Britannia your father will take us to our home and we won't need to worry about anything."

"You mean he'll put you to work while the two of us get to be slave-owners," Kallen argued, angry for her mother.

"Kallen, the Britannians don't own slaves anymore," Madam Kozuki reminded softly. "I'll be working as a maid so I don't have to leave the two of you."

"Paying them enough to say they have pocket-change doesn't mean they still aren't slaves," Kallen replied, incensed.

"Kallen's right mother," Naoto insisted.

"Just wait a week, you'll see," their mother replied.

"Welcome aboard the Great Britannia, Miss." The green-haired woman accepted her ticket, forward along the ship in the first class entrance from Kallen's position, and answered back with a pleasant smile. "Enjoy your voyage."

"Oh I will," the emeraldette replied. "I just hope it won't end too soon." CC chuckled at her own joke, knowing that the voyage would seem far too short to whoever was left to remember it.

"My prince, we should rejoin your father," the witch heard. She looked to see Jeremiah and Lelouch walking along the hallway. The prince stood out with his violet prince's uniform against the white of the halls.

"I need far more alcohol than I currently have before I'm facing that gauntlet," Lelouch promised. C passed the ravenette with a knowing smile. Lelouch scowled, pausing a second at the woman in a very...inappropriate dress. Why did she seem out of place?

Lelouch continued his journey for liquid ignorance, releasing the thought.

Everyone CC passed in the halls to her first-class stateroom was off-put by her. Whether her green hair, golden eyes, or her revealing dress of red silk, every person she saw would not dare approach her. She liked it this way, of course, but such impoliteness. Her large bag, the only things she cared to take with her, was dropped to the floor when she entered her room.

When she finally closed her stateroom door behind her, she gave a relieved sigh. The witch quickly undid the carefully made knots, that once undone, quickly allowed her dress to slide off of her in a smooth action, leaving her in nothing but her emerald curls. She exhaled with pleasant relief and sat down in a very comfortable chair, crossing her legs and letting the wind caress her...skin.

She raised her arms over her head, picking her hair up and pulling her bangs aside to reveal the red mark on her brow, the shape of a bird in flight. It was so freeing to get out of her stuffy clothes. Truly this current society was pure hell to those who despised being covered in sweat. Then her thoughts turned to the reason she was here.

"I wonder if they'll make it," she commented to the ether.

Lelouch raged beneath his pleasant smile. The black prince had been dragged back to his father by his personal executor Bismark Waldstein, for the function of the Captain personally greeting Lelouch, his father, Emperor Charles zi Britannia, and his mother Marianne. Such... _delightful_...decorum.

 _134,135,_ Lelouch counted to himself, lightly shaking the hands of the officers aboard. While Lelouch would have enjoyed meeting naval officers on his own time, such a forced meeting supremely disgusted Lelouch. Jeremiah knew his prince's discomfort but remained stoic, knowing the Emperor would censure him for supporting the prince verbally.

"How do you find our ship, Prince Lelouch?" the captain asked as he shook Lelouch's hand. Lelouch noted how weakly the captain gripped his hand. Lelouch squeezed the hand more tightly, trying to prompt a firmer meeting.

"I do admire sailing and the ocean," Lelouch admitted with a smile. "If I had my choice I'd like to work a ship someday."

"A pity his duties to the Throne are so time-consuming," the Emperor commented politely. Lelouch chafed internally.

 _208,209..._

"What duties to the Throne?" Lelouch as soon as the officers and Captain left the greeting on the grand staircase. "I didn't realize socializing with your allies and enduring marriage proposals for you constituted duty."

"When you become Emperor, you may do as you wish," Charles quickly replied. "Now tend to your station and carry out my orders." Lelouch's hand unconsciously went to a fist. "You would strike me, Lelouch? Would you risk death for a chance to vent your wrath?"

"It would be a reprieve from this burden," Lelouch admitted angrily.

"You ungrateful child," Marianne finally declared, acting offended. "Your father offers you the strongest Empire in centuries and you dare to think of striking him?"

"Wait," Charles said, making Lelouch's brows rise. "You are old enough to merit a taste of freedom, as long as you understand your position."

"A compromise?" Lelouch asked, stunned at the idea.

"You may indulge yourself aboard this ship, so long as you do not embarrass yourself or myself with your actions," Charles finally offered. "But first, bow." Lelouch stiffened, his spine turning to steel. He gritted his teeth. Debase himself for freedom. But oh to finally be a little free.

Lelouch bowed low, one hand placed at the low of his back, the other held as a fist to his chest.

"You may go," Charles finally said. Lelouch rose and felt lighter for it. He was about to leave for the bridge when the Emperor spoke again. "I do expect you to join your mother and I for dinner of course." Lelouch glanced over his shoulder at the man.

"I'll be there."

Lelouch quickly headed for the bridge. Jeremiah followed behind the prince.

"Freedom, Jeremiah, freedom!" Lelouch exclaimed, feeling like he might fly at any moment.

* * *

Kallen frowned at the tiny cabin. Just two beds. Barely bunks at that. A sink. A rack for some small luggage. At least there no actual chains. Other than that it was a lovely slave galley room. Kallen's mother had scorned her for saying exactly those words. And she was going to have to sleep with her mother in one of those bunks.

Kallen finally threw her arms up in frustration and stormed from the room, heading up the nearest set of stairs. After what seemed a hundred steps she was on the top deck of the ship, the wind finally passing through her red hair as the ship put the islands of Japan behind them. Britannia's latest colony, taken in response to the French colonies in southern Asia.

"Sayonara," she said sadly. She began to head toward the front of the ship. Maybe it wouldn't be all bad, she decided. Her father's influence could mean a good deal of change could be made. She passed a good deal of the Japanese third-class still filing down the stairwells to try to find their rooms.

Her own people. She noted that a few crew members were driving them that way. Herding them like cattle. Her own people. Kallen noted with a great feeling of guilt that when she arrived they wouldn't be her people. She'd become Karen Stadtfeld, a Britannian. She looked away, hiding her face in shame. Tears threatened hey eyes. With a sob she ran for the bow of the great liner. With her hair the Britannians didn't even look twice at her.

When she arrived she saw a pair of men already standing near the point of the ship. The taller one was older with slightly graying black hair. His uniform almost seemed black and orange in the light. The younger man was shorter, but only just, coming a few inches above Kallen's height. His raven hair framed his head almost like a hood. His purple uniform fit his strong form very well.

Kallen ignored him and gripped the railing, looking down at the sea. She saw a few grey forms swimming in the wave in front of the bow. One jumped from the water and she realized the forms were dolphins. To her delight another jumped, and another, the group playing amongst the strong wave of the ship. Leaning over, she found herself entranced by the playful swimmers.

A raised giggle drew Lelouch's eyes open, making him look over from relishing the oncoming breeze. A red-haired girl was leaning over the railings giggling at something. Lelouch walked over to see without deciding too.

In the superstructure of the cruiser behind the bow, a green-haired woman lowered rose-tinted sunglasses to smile approvingly at the two coming closer.

"Fall," CC whispered.

Kallen gave a short scream as she leaned too far over, beginning to fall over the railing. The blue water seemed to fill her vision for a second before a strong arm gripped her around her chest and dragged her back to where her feet landed on the decking. Kallen stepped back from the railing, gasping for air from the near-accident. If that man hadn't saved her, she could've been drowned underneath the massive ship and chopped into paint by the propeller.

That man. Kallen finally examined the man who had saved her. The man in the purple uniform.

"Careful," Lelouch advised with a smile. Kallen recognized him with widened eyes.

She knew enough of Britannia to know who her savior was. The son of the man most directly responsible for Japan's recent suffering. With gritted teeth Kallen angrily ran away from him.

"Hm." CC said, pushing her sunglasses back up with one finger, back in her red dress, a wide hat protecting her fair skin. She frowned at the open air and sea.

"Hmph," Lelouch grunted, frowning and looking back at the oncoming sea.

* * *

Captain Dalton smiled as he looked at the sea. Finally to be underway again. And beyond, final blessed retirement and a life of ease and simple pleasures. He looked at First Officer Guilford and gave the order.

"Full ahead Mr. Guilford," Dalton ordered. "Let's stretch her legs." Guilford stepped back to the bridge. Addressing the two officers there Guilford moved to the center tiller.

"Mr. Wineburg, Miss Alstreim, full ahead," Guilford declared.

"Yes, sir," Wineburg replied cheerfully, his long blonde locks remaining perfect beneath his cap. He almost skipped to the tiller to turn the engine reading.

"Aye," Chorused with Anya Alstreim with an almost indecently dull monotone. She turned the tiller as mechanically as possible.

* * *

Suzaku was quickly yelled at about the order to go to full steam ahead. Without complaint Suzaku began to shovel the coal into the massive furnaces even faster, surrounded by hundreds of firemen and stokers. The fire made Suzaku's skin harden as the heat rose. Suzaku just kept the motions of scraping the coal into his shovel, lifting and tossing them, trying to maintain his speed despite the sweat that began to build on his skin.

 _Scrape, lift, toss._

 _Scrape, lift, toss._

* * *

"The Great Britannia, the largest ship built by the hand of man in all history," Clovis La Mavis declared, pride filling his perfectly accented voice. "And our master ship-builder, Lloyd Asplund, designed her from the keel up."

Charles and Marianne smiled pleasantly, Marianne taking a sip of tea. Lelouch noticed their table as he entered the Cafe. Styled like a coffee-house in Paris, the décor was frilly and made of wicker chairs with pads. He noticed his parents too, and would have avoided them aside from wishing to discuss the ship further. And the ship-owner and the builder with sitting with them.

"Seven hells, he breathed. "May I join you?" Lelouch sat down without hearing the response, if one was even thought of. "I was surveying parts of the ship. Very impressive."

"Oh thank you," Lloyd cooed in an oddly accented voice. "I must credit Clovis with the idea for a steamship so large, but the mechanical aspects were my pleasure in designing."

"I noticed a small number of lifeboats on the deck," Lelouch commented, in between ordering a coffee. "Are there more stored in a hold somewhere?"

"Oh, no," Lloyd replied, giving Clovis an interesting glance. "Of course the Britannia's safety systems make them highly doubtful to be needed." This piqued Lelouch's interest.

"May I ask what kind of systems are aboard?" Charles and Marianne were eying Lelouch with highly concealed disdain, but Charles's interest at his own safety had raised his attention.

"Well it is a proprietary business technology..." Lloyd began to say.

"Please continue," this time Charles was the one to urge the continuation of the discussion.

"Well to put your majesty at ease. The hull is divided with a number of water-tight doors, approximately 18 to be exact. In an emergency the doors can be closed to seal the compartments. There are a number of water pumps in each watertight compartment, so the ship might stay afloat with a number of them open to sea."

"How many?" Lelouch pressed, sipping his black coffee. Lloyd was uncomfortable, and made more so by the question.

"Any three, or six in the front of the ship," Lloyd finally answered. Charles and Marianne didn't react, not quite understanding of the ramifications.

"Seems that the Great Britannia was very well designed, indeed," Lelouch stated finally with a smile. "My compliments to your precautions." Now Charles and Marianne relaxed. _Damned fools,_ Lelouch thought glumly. _So much for running an empire, they've neglected all other pursuits of knowledge._ He set his coffee cup down.

"Has the ship taken many passenger journeys before?" Clovis smiled at Lelouch's question.

"No, this is her maiden voyage with passengers," Lelouch paused at Clovis's response.

"She was assembled in the Japan docks?"

"Oh no, she was assembled in San Diego and sailed here specifically to carry your highness and your majesty," Clovis nodded to Lelouch and Charles in turn. Lelouch frowned at the obvious currying favor from the Emperor. Charles seemed to approve. Lelouch stopped listening to the small-talk as his thoughts drifted elsewhere. He might have to find that girl.


End file.
